


Ain't Running So Cold

by MercyBuckets



Series: Killjoys Superpower!AU [2]
Category: Killjoys (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Artificial Intelligence, Case Fic, Collection: Purimgifts Day 2, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Introspection, Kinda, Male-Female Friendship, Mind Meld, Rescue Missions, Technology, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-13
Updated: 2016-03-13
Packaged: 2018-05-24 01:07:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6136168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercyBuckets/pseuds/MercyBuckets
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Part Two: In which Dutch gets to the heart of the matter and John and Lucy have and even closer working relationship than usual.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ain't Running So Cold

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pameluke](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pameluke/gifts).



> Title is from Mess of a Man by Matthew Mayfield 
> 
> Continued from previous part

 

> Technopath!Johnny

 

Dutch has a just long enough to wonder what the hell is going on before D’avin’s fist connects with her face.

“I don’t want to hurt you D’av” she says. Her instincts are screaming at her to put him down but she forces her aura down, the sword dissipating under the force of her will.  

D’avin lunges at her and she backhands him hard enough to send him to the ground.

D’avin laughs.

“Careful, you wouldn’t want to break loverboy’s pretty face,” he says.

“What do you want?” she hisses.

“You,” he says.

She pulls back, surprised but recovers quickly.

“That’s not creepy at all,” she retorts advancing with a kick.

He steps back out of her reach.

“Well I’d love to stay and chat,” he says. “But I’ve got somewhere to be.”

She can tell what he’s about to do a second before he does it but she’s still too late to keep him from jumping over the side of the roof.

“D’avin,” she shouts almost by instinct.

He waves as he hits the ground running, grappling hook still dangling from the side of the building.

She’s about to jump over after him when two things happen in quick succession; first her left shoulder explodes in pain courtesy of one of the remaining goons and second, her phone rings.

She takes out the goon who shot her with an aura blast that leaves her knees weak and fishes her phone out gingerly.

“Meet me downstairs,” says Johnny before she can say anything. “We have a problem.”

“You can say that again,” says Dutch not bothering to hang up as she dispatches the two remaining goons with aura fueled punches that leave her feeling hollow and heading for the stairs.

 

* * *

 

“What the fuck happened?” asks Johnny when she gets to him.

He has a few more bruises than he did when she last saw him but he’s alive.

“Your brother,” she says. “Attacked me and ran off.”

“What the fuck,” says Johnny and surprisingly, it’s not a question.

She answers anyway.

“It’s some sort of mind control. His eyes turned red.”

Johnny’s expression goes from calm to panic and back in less than ten seconds.

“Lucy check the database,” he orders.

Even after 4 months, it still unnerves Dutch the way that he can zone out talking to Lucy somewhere deep in his mind. Everything has changed so much this past year between D’avin joining them, Johnny’s “accident” and their subsequent decision to go rogue; she can’t help but long for the days when it was just her and Johnny, running missions and driving each other crazy. She can’t help but feel like they’ve lost something, and now they can’t get it back.

“Dutch, you’re bleeding,” says Johnny yanking her out of her thoughts.

“Oh,” she says remembering. “Yeah, one of them shot me, through and through. I just need to sleep it off.”

Johnny looks unconvinced but nods.

“Let’s get you to bed then,” he says.

His voice is void of inflection and she recognizes what he sounds like when he’s barely keeping it together.

“We’re gonna find him Johnny,” she says to reassure him.

Johnny frowns.

“I’m more worried about what we do after that,” he says grimly.

 

* * *

 

It thankfully takes them less than an hour to get back to their temporary base of operations, the basement of one of Pawter’s family’s vacation homes, thanks to Johnny “borrowing” a car.  It’s not the safest place considering that Pawter is _persona non grata_ with her family but it’s worth it for the tech alone.

Johnny immediately goes over to one of the many monitors and starts a conversation with Lucy that Dutch is pretty sure she couldn’t follow if she could hear both sides, never mind just one.

Dutch allows herself to collapse onto a cot in the corner opposite Johnny where she falls asleep almost immediately.

When she wakes up, her shoulder is sore but the wound is nothing more than a scar.

She grabs two cups of coffee and goes over to Johnny. Judging by the look on his face, he hasn’t found anything but she asks anyway because it’s what he’s expecting and they could both use a little bit of normal right now.

“There’s nothing,” he says flatly. “It’s like someone deleted everything.”

“Why do you say that?” asks Dutch.

“Normally, there would be some unrelated content mixed in with anything useful but there’s literally nothing,” he says his voice breaking a little at the end.

“Who could do something like that?” Dutch asks ignoring the break in his composure.

“Even the upper level RAC officials can’t delete whole swaths of information like that,” says Johnny.

“Could you do it?” she asks aiming for casual.

She has a sudden hunch that she’s praying is wrong.

It’s Lucy who answers.

_"HE COULD."_

“Fuck,” says Dutch.

“You have the murder look,” says Johnny.

Dutch almost has to laugh because D’av is the telepath but Johnny has always been perceptive.

“It’s Khylen,” she says. “I know it is. I don’t know how, but it’s him.”

Johnny doesn’t dismiss her outright which makes her feel worse. She almost wishes that he had told her she was being paranoid again.

“If that’s true,” says Johnny. “Then this goes way deeper than just Derrish.”

“They were talking to someone,” says Dutch remembering suddenly. “Someone who asked about you.”

“That’s not ominous at all,” says Johnny.

“I think he knew,” adds Dutch.

“Of course he knew,” says Johnny. “He set the trap.”

Dutch shakes her head.

“No, I think D’av knew somehow,” she says. “He said he had a bad feeling and then right before it happened, he told me to run.”

Did D’avin say anything else Dutch, asks Lucy. We might be able to refine the search.

Dutch racks her brain.

“He said they were coming more than once and — 17, he said 17”

 _"RED 17,"_ says Lucy.

“Nano tech,” says Johnny a beat behind. “Of course.”

“Why does that sound familiar?” asked Dutch.

 _"RED 17 IS A NANOTECHNOLOGY PROJECT STARTED TO TREAT PTSD IN VETERANS_ ," says Lucy

“It’s also the file that RAC tried to have me killed over,” says Johnny.


End file.
